'Truth spoken without moderation reverses itself'
This blog is a source for intellectual exploration. It includes a list of alternative resources and a source of free books. The placement of an article does not imply that I agree with it, merely that I found it thought-provoking. There are also poems and book reviews. Texts written by me are labelled. Readers are free to re-post anything they like.

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Dinanath Nadim - Kashmir's forgotten poet by Mohan K. Tikku

The most outstanding
figure in 20th century Kashmiri literature has also been the least published
poet of his generation. To his many readers and admirers, Dinanath Nadim has
been a bit of a paradox. In a literary career extending over half a century,
Nadim (1916-89) wrote a lot but published little. Partly, the neglect was due
to Nadim’s reclusive nature. He would often scribble his poems on stray scraps
of paper, including the packet of Charminar cigarettes that he smoked
regularly, and never cared to put them together for publication. As a result,
the poet did not receive the kind of critical acclaim that he so eminently
deserved. But a recent discovery of his unpublished work may change that.

Nadim burst upon the
literary scene in 1946 - a time when Kashmir was experiencing historic
political changes. Sheikh Abdullah had just been released from prison and the
National Conference, the premier political party of the state at the time, was
getting ready for an enlarged role. Nadim made his mark when he got a chance to
recite a poem at a public gathering in Srinagar to honour Abdullah. The
evocative poem - an ode to Abdullah and the mass movement he was leading - had
an electrifying effect on the audience and Nadim soon became the most
compelling voice of modern Kashmiri poetry.

Nadim also spearheaded
the progressive writers and artists movement in Kashmir. He went on to pen the
first modern short story in Kashmiri, wrote the first operas and the first
sonnets in the language, and experimented with new genres. He introduced the
language to a new diction, where words of common usage would acquire new
meaning and force. The onomatopoeic effects of his poems resonated with the
masses, regaling and surprising them all at once. Along with two of his senior
contemporaries — Mehjoor and Azad — Nadim brought Kashmiri poetry, which had
long been restricted to themes of love and longing, face-to-face with
contemporary realities, and provided it with a modern sensibility. For
instance, here’s an excerpt from a sonnet that was especially popular: “The
moon rose, over the rolling hillocks;/ Like children seated in a row, hungry
and waiting,/ Waiting for something to be fed.”

Yet, the lack of
published work hampered his literary career. When his name was proposed for the
Soviet Land Nehru Award in 1971, the selection committee found that this
pre-eminent poet of the language, who had mentored a whole generation of
younger poets, did not have a single book to his name. The selection committee
finally found a way out. The citation said that Nadim was being awarded for “the
totality of his works”, without having to mention any title in particular —
simply because there was none. Despite the lack of
published work, Nadim managed to create an impact within Kashmir and outside.
In the 1950s, Harivansh Rai Bachchan translated some of Nadim’s poems into
Hindi, and Kamleshwar paid him the ultimate tribute by likening him to a
devdaru (the tallest tree) on the Kashmiri literary landscape. In 1987, just a
couple of years before his death, Nadim received the Sahitya Akademi award.

In 1990, a year after
the poet’s passing, some of his relatives, fortunately, returned to visit
Nadim’s home in Srinagar. One of them fortuitously packed a pile of old and
yellowed papers lying around in his baggage. It now turns out that the pile
contained many of Nadim’s unpublished works. These include over a hundred poems
and a few operas, apart from sundry pieces of writing. These may now appear in
print for the first time. This month marks the
beginning of Nadim’s birth centenary year. The Sahitya Akademi in New Delhi
appears to have missed the date. Hopefully, it’s still not too late. The
discovery of Nadim’s unpublished work places the centenary celebrations in a
new light. It would now be an appropriate occasion to bring out his complete
works, including the newly discovered writings. But is the Sahitya Akademi
listening?